Books get the shove as university students prefer to do research online

By Yuko Narushima HIGHER EDUCATION

8 March 2011 — 12:00am

THE University of NSW is throwing away thousands of books and scholarly journals as part of a policy that critics say is turning its library into a Starbucks.

Academics say complete journal collections, valuable books and newspapers dating to the 19th century are being thrown out to clear space for cafe-style lounges.

BooksCredit:Cathy Wilcox

The Herald has obtained an internal document listing thousands of titles due to be pulled from shelves. The 138-page ''weeding'' list includes encyclopaedias, dictionaries, books in foreign languages and texts on psychology, politics and morality.

The policy, which until recently required librarians to remove 50,000 volumes each year, does not allow the last Australian copy of any book to be discarded. But it has opened an ideological row about the function of modern libraries as more research material becomes accessible online.

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Already, thousands of books have been dumped in skips in the library basement and staff in various disciplines say they have not been given the opportunity to salvage them.

''This is a scandal. It's outrageous on a whole number of different levels,'' said Peter Slezak, an associate professor in the school of history and philosophy. ''Anyone that has anything to do with books is distressed at this. They are extremely good books.''

The cleanout has so upset some that library staff have rescued books destined for the bin. One former library assistant said he had taken more than 200 books. ''If the book's not borrowed in the last couple of years, they throw it out,'' he said. ''Most libraries see their function as an archive but these guys see it almost like a video store. After you've had the book five years, why keep it?''

Most shocking, he said, was the disposal of a collection of newspapers from the 1850s and 1860s.

''They're getting rid of books to make space for students to sit around, have lunch and plug their laptops in. Bizarrely, they've turned the library into a kind of a Starbucks,'' Professor Slezak said.

A university spokeswoman said that since August library policy no longer set a target for the number of books to cull. Superseded textbooks were hard to give away, some titles were moved into storage and libraries worldwide faced the same dilemma, she said.

''The library has an ongoing program to remove print journals where online archival access is provided. Our academic community prefers to use the online versions and they use them very heavily,'' she said.

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Dr John Golder, a visiting research fellow in theatre, feared the digitisation of libraries would prevent students stumbling across new information. ''A serendipitous discovery is impossible when the book isn't there,'' he said.

A professor in the school of history and philosophy, David Miller, understood libraries could not preserve everything but thought consultation could be improved. ''There's something profoundly wrong, and symbolically wrong, about a university destroying books,'' he said. ''Universities are in the business of passing on knowledge and books - no matter how the use of books is shrinking - still remain a very important symbol of knowledge.''